Just My Luck
by Carbon Dated
Summary: No. No. No. No way. No. Hermione finds herself mistakenly sharing a cab with none other than Draco Malfoy and on Valentine's Day no less. What are the odds.


"No. No. No. No. No. No way. No." The taxi started rolling forward. I hadn't even noticed him telling the driver his destination as I sat frozen, repeating myself like a broken record from the inexplicably bad luck.

"Oh, get over it Granger," he interrupted my rambling while he put what looked like a datebook into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. "I've got somewhere important to be."

That jolted me, "and you think I don't? You could have at least asked me to get out before you just started taking off." The car slowed to a stop as the light ahead turned from yellow to red.

"Well, now's your chance." He leaned over to unlatch my door.

I slammed it shut before he had a chance to fully situate himself back on his side. "No chance Malfoy. I was technically here first."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "If you were just going to ignore the suggestion, why even bring it up?" Hair had fallen over his eyes as he looked down to adjust his tie and brush non-existent lint off his lapel while giving instructions to the driver to continue to the destination. Leaning toward the center to view himself in the rear view mirror, he carefully moved the blond strands back into place.

"It's called 'courtesy', Malfoy. Something you obviously know little about, or you would have asked to have the cab or gotten out yourself."

"I don't have the time to argue over who's cab it should have been or about the niceties. You lost it the moment you decided to gape at me, while I took the initiative and actually provided information to the driver."

Air escaped my nose as I sat back and crossed my arms to look out the window at the passing buildings. I could imagine the satisfied smirk on his face thinking he won. He was infuriating, and yet he was correct with one thing: that stoplight was an opportunity to get out to find my own taxi and minimize how late I would be. Not that I would allow myself to be late. I had left the apartment an hour early to purposefully give myself plenty of time to get to the restaurant, find a good spot in view of the door, and maybe start on a glass of wine before my date arrived.

One of my coworkers saw it fit to arrange a date for me and refused to tell me who he was, not that I was sure she even knew. A friend of hers from a separate department had supplied the candidate, but it would be rude of me to stand him up despite my reservations, especially since they went through the trouble of setting it up in the first place. I had to admit I was curious. She assured me he was a gentleman, and any wizard willing to meet in a muggle restaurant was surely a good sign.

The week before, I picked out a pair of black, high waisted slacks, a warm coat and scarf, and a pale blue sweater with three-quarter sleeves and neckline to my collarbone that would show off the identifying phoenix pendant once I arrived at the restaurant. It was also sensible for the colder, mid-February weather and could complement the slate blue tie and owl tie clip my date was going to wear. I was told he was taller and would likely insist on paying for the meal. That was something I was going to have to mention would be unnecessary.

I sat there for a few minutes wondering what to expect and musing over how he would react to my refusal to let him pay for my portion when I turned toward Malfoy. He was messing with his tie again. "What are you doing in the muggle world?"

Malfoy finished smoothing the fabric, "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm meeting someone."

"A girl?"

"Imagine that Granger, a date on Valentine's Day. Revolutionary."

"It is when you're in the muggle world for it."

"I don't need to explain the details of my private life with you. Now, next stop we make, you are going to get out of this car, and we will, hopefully, forget this occurrence." The cab turned a corner.

I was not getting out. I had made the point this was my cab, so I was going to keep it, even if it meant sharing until he was let out at his stop. "Well that explains your fussing."

Malfoy's lip curled at my blatant ignoring of his request or perhaps my comment, "Malfoys don't fuss, Granger."

I let out a small laugh, "then what do you call your constant fidgeting with your clothes and hair? Nervousness perhaps." He quickly ran his hand over his tie once more and did not reply. I laughed again. I had no idea why he was nervous about meeting someone, but from what I remember, this was typical Malfoy being arrogant until someone made a comment towards him he couldn't counter causing him to become flustered, but instead of defensive indignation as I often saw in school, today he was opting for silence.

I suppose I did something very similar just a few moments ago, but my lack of response was due to his stubbornness to not see reason and not out of embarrassment, and it was quite entertaining to witness Malfoy being less poised as usual. In truth, I don't know how he has been the past few years. Not being in school, I don't see him nearly everyday, and our interactions at Hogwarts weren't during the best of times with Voldemort's return and with our family backgrounds.

Since the war ended, I know Harry and even Professor McGonagall helped clear his name, but I have no clue how he has reacted to the changes. We all have our own ways of coping with the past. For me, I found myself leaning on Ron for encouragement and as a partner to help continue pushing the magical community to a more open and understanding mindset. Despite Voldemort's defeat, the world still faced many difficulties with acceptance, so I threw my focus into promoting knowledge of muggle culture and recently decided to implement a study for intelligent creature welfare, such as house elves and goblins.

Ron did not share my enthusiasm, but rather, he appreciated the distraction I provided. It worked for a while, but it was soon clear I was more invested in my research than settling down, and he wanted quiet and distance after all we had been through, done, and lost. Our grieving processes were just different, so we decided to end our slowly dissolving romantic relationship to remain friends.

Draco surely found his own method to move past the war. Merlin knows he must have experienced nightmares of his own, and it's possible this girl has helped him in a more effective way than I had wanted with Ron. "Have you been dating her long? Is that why you're so nervous? Is it the big night?"

Malfoy looked toward me. "No chance Granger. I don't owe you answers."

"But things have been going well?"

A small smile came to his lips as he scoffed, "Why are you suddenly so interested in my personal life?" There was a pause as he settled comfortably back into his seat, looking down at his tie once more. He licked his lips before continuing, "anyhow, I'm in no position to be proposing to anyone. I barely have time for myself with the classes I've been taking."

"Ooh!" That got my attention. "What sort of classes?"

"Haha. Leave it to you to get excited over schooling." He had a sincere smile on his face, something I had never seen him direct towards me. The taxi rounded another corner, and the driver explained we were nearing the destination.

"Well expanding your education and knowledge is always important."

"I agree," He replied softly with a side glance at the driver, "It's some potions courses and a mandatory post war muggle studies class at the ministry."

My mouth fell open slightly. Malfoy had just agreed with something I said and voluntarily provided information, but a muggle studies course would explain why he seemed at relative ease here in the muggle world and able to understand the taxi. "How interesting, but why mandatory?"

"Surely you know all about it, Granger. It was your idea." I looked down at my lap at his response. After all my efforts into creating the program, I never took the time to find out who was benefiting from it. I didn't have long to ponder though as the car pulled over to the curb. Malfoy began rummaging through his inner coat pocket and extracted some muggle money for the driver before exiting the taxi without another word.

The driver then asked where I'd like to go, but I had noticed a sign above the door with the name of a restaurant on it, confused. "This is actually where I am supposed to be. Thank you." I handed him an extra tip.

"Why are you following me Granger? Having trouble staying away now?" Malfoy paused on the sidewalk and turned with his hands in his pockets to look at me as I closed the cab door.

"Well it turns out…" I pointed toward the building behind him.

Malfoy glanced to where I had gestured then quickly turned back to me, "Oh Salazar. Don't tell me."

My eyes widened. Despite how often I watched him adjust his tie, I had not realized the rich, slate blue color and the tie clip set perfectly at his chest. An owl tie clip. I looked up. "No. No. No. No. No. No way. No."

* * *

Disclaimer: All characters belong originally to JK Rowling

The idea for this story came from seeing a 3 word prompt with "Taxi", "Valentine's Day", and something else I can't remember, but I decided to roll with it anyways. I hope you enjoyed my first attempt at a fic.


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